Technical developments related to ASV (Advanced Safety Vehicle) wherein warnings are given to drivers and operation assistance is provided to ensure safe driving of vehicles have been underway. In particular, in order to prevent vehicles from deviating from roads, three-dimensional objects representing road boundaries, such as sidewalk/road separating blocks, guard rails, hedges, etc., or traffic lanes, etc., need to be detected, and the host vehicle needs to be controlled in accordance with the detection result. As for three-dimensional objects representing road boundaries, they are separated and lined up at various intervals as can be understood from the fact that, by way of example, there are those that are lined up at intervals that allow entry by vehicles, as in entrances to parking lots, or branch roads, and there are also those that are lined up at intervals that only allow entry by pedestrians.
In preventing deviation from roads, continuous deviation prevention control is performed with respect to separated three-dimensional objects. However, an arrangement needs to be made such that deviation prevention control is not performed when entering parking lots or branch roads.
With respect to boundary position detection, by way of example, there is disclosed in Patent Document 1 a technique for detecting a three-dimensional object representing a traffic lane or road boundary based on an image or distance measurement data (ranging data) obtained from a camera or laser scanner mounted on a vehicle.
In addition, with respect to deviation prevention control, by way of example, there is disclosed in Patent Document 2 a technique for preventing, where there is a possibility that the host vehicle might deviate from the traveled traffic lane, the host vehicle from deviating from the traveled traffic lane by imparting to the host vehicle a yaw moment by controlling the braking force on the wheels. In addition, by way of example, there is disclosed in Patent Document 3 a technique for preventing deviation from a road by adjusting the yaw moment imparted to the host vehicle in accordance with the position of an obstacle at the shoulder, such as a parked vehicle, etc., that exists in a travel area.